The impact of drivers’ short-term exposure to air pollution on traffic deaths

Shi, Daqian; Liu, Ziwei; Fu, Jie; Yu, Hongwei

The impact of drivers’ short-term exposure to air pollution on traffic deaths

2022

Shi, Daqian | Liu, Ziwei | Fu, Jie | Yu, Hongwei

Air pollution may decrease drivers’ driving performance thus leading to traffic accidents, but this impact is almost ignored in existing literature. We investigate the short-term effect of air pollution on traffic deaths using the high-dimensional fixed effect model and instrument variable method based on the daily-city panel data in China from 2013 to 2018. The results show that drivers’ short-term exposure to air pollution significantly increases the number of traffic deaths. For every 1 ug/m³ increase of PM2.5 concentration each day, the daily number of traffic deaths will increase by 0.64%. The impacts of air pollution on traffic deaths can last for 2 days. We also find that impact varies from different driver groups.The male, the young (age under 22), the elderly (age over 60), and the two-wheeler drivers are more vulnerable. Worse air pollution may associate with more bad driving behaviors and less good manners. In this article, we reveal a new factor that leads to traffic deaths, i.e., air pollution, and we also put forward some prevention strategies which may provide policy references for traffic safety.

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